1895-08-25 ( 129 years old ) in Oran, Algeria
Habib Benglia, born August 25, 1895 in Oran (Algeria) and died December 2, 1960 at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris 4th, is a French actor and dancer. He was the first black French artist to experience such success in the 1920s. Married, he was the father of two children.
Born to caravan parents, originally from Mali (then called French Sudan), he lived his entire childhood in Timbuktu, before arriving, with his parents, in mainland France to deliver camels to the acclimatization garden where the exhibition was held. colonial "Les Nègres", in 1912. He decided to stay in France and began his career in 1913, both in theater and in cinema, after having met the actress and dancer Régine Flory, who introduced him to Cora Laparcerie, director of the Théâtre de la Renaissance. Mobilized for the First World War, he then joined Firmin Gémier's theater company which ended up at the Théâtre National de l'Odéon with Gaston Baty in 1922. Benglia was thus the first black to play roles from the classical repertoire, and he found himself also performing the title role of The Emperor Jones at the Odéon in 19234, at the age of 27. However, he explored other aspects of his art: dance, revues, vaudeville... Theater in all its forms remained his passion for more than 36 years. It was primarily through theater that he played a major role in Parisian cultural life between the wars.
Benglia was also interested in cinema, but French cinema hardly offered him good roles. He is most often found in small roles in second-rate films, but also in a few colonial propaganda films, sometimes in ridiculously exotic roles. A few exceptions: Benglia stars in “Daïnah La Métisse”, he has interesting passages in “Sola ou Les Mystères de Paris”, then he makes a brief appearance in “Les Enfants du Paradis”, a film in which he only worked two days (December 5 and 6, 1943). In total, he appeared in around sixty films. It was the range of his deep voice which was most remarkable and which determined the roles entrusted to him.
He died on December 2, 1960 at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris.
Movies
Candide or The Optimism in the 20th Century
1960-12-16
Some Like It... Cold
1960-02-17
Tamango
1958-01-24
A Missionary
1955-12-02
Native Drums
1955-09-09
La Danseuse de Marrakech
1950-04-19
The Figurehead
1948-06-16
La Renégate
1948-04-09
Le Bateau à soupe
1947-02-19
Children of Paradise
1945-03-15
African Diary
1940-06-25
Mon curé chez les riches
1938-12-21
Les Rois de la flotte
1938-10-19
Tempête sur l'Asie
1938-04-20
Hatred
1938-01-26
The Secrets of the Red Sea
1937-09-08
Grand Illusion
1937-06-04
L'empreinte rouge
1937-03-19
Nitchevo
1936-12-18
Les Gaietés du palace
1936-12-11
Le Roman d'un spahi
1936-03-27
Mysteries of Paris
1935-10-13
Dainah the Mixed
1932-08-19
You Will Be a Duchess
1932-02-12
Storm of Marrakech
1932-01-08
La Femme et le rossignol
1931-03-13
Alone
1931-02-13
Yasmina
1927-02-11
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